Jeff Stahl creates incredible celebrity caricature. Check out Christopher Walken!
Audrey Tautou:
His angles and skewing of perspective are brilliantly done. So distorted, yet so recognizable.
Anne Hathaway:
He also does some great skull studies.
Mai Ja’s work reminds me VERY much of Trevor Brown and Sas Christian, but is accomplished in its own right as well.
The sadness amidst soft pastel colors is striking…it’s like a cotton candy machine spinning ethereal structures of sugar and pain.
Ah, the secrets this heart must hold…
I stumbled upon Wibbley World in a random google image search, and found a collection of sweet, strange little animals.
I would love to see a plushy model/toy of this one.
And this.
Most creations are just a tad askew; not exactly cute, just shy of a nightmare.
Five years ago I saw Mark Ryden’s Gay 90′s exhibit in NY (wow…has it been five years already?). It was an incredible show filled with Ryden’s trademark wide eyes, kitschy color schemes, symbolism and American icons of bygone days.
The Gay 90′s West just opened in LA, featuring a gigantic new piece:
Ryden states:
One of the main pieces in this show is a large automaton diorama, titled Memory Lane [see video, above]. It is an eight-by-four-foot enclosure housed in a circus wagon-like structure. It is a bustling city street scene full of a combination of altered found objects (toys and dolls), sculpted, and painted elements. In an overarching way, it combines all of the themes and ideas I have been working with.
See an interview with Ryden about this show here.
Quick post today…I bring you the surreal offerings of Burton Gray.
I was intrigued and rather delighted when I saw Jacob Gagnon’s tea and cupcake display…populated with miniature giraffes and ladders (of COURSE they need ladders! How would they reach the top teacups otherwise?).
In his portfolio we find all kinds of creatures strangely interacting with household items.
In fact, I can safely say I’ve never seen such a proliferation of wild animals and fine china.
And I adore the way he skews the scale of his subjects.
Andrew Ferez is responsible for two pieces I’ve loved for quite a while without knowing the artist. Aren’t these first two really spectacular?
His work reminds me a bit of Jacek Yerka with its fine details and blending of architecture, human invention and nature.
Many of his creations seem to contain a prominent fire element; a bit of burning chaos and/or illumination.
I’d like a a bumper sticker of this painting that says MY OTHER CAR IS A TALONED FISH SAXOPHONE WITH WHEELS.
Very little biographical information about the artist behind FFO Art is currently available online, but she creates beautiful art nouveau anatomical pieces in the style of Alphonse Mucha, and gloriously gory refashioned pinups.
She has also made a stunningly herbaceous anatomical alphabet…perhaps my favorite alphabet project from a modern artist yet.
Check out the undead (and maybe dead) creations of Jeff Christensen.
Many of his paintings have an “interdimensional” feel to them, as if his subjects are exploring strange worlds or navigating between them.
Dustin Krtolica is the most prodigious child I’ve ever come across. At the age of 11, he draws remarkably sophisticated scenes in the natural world.
From the source.
Krtolica’s intricate drawings reflect his fascination with the natural world. He has a thorough knowledge of all the geological eras, the animals that lived during those periods, and different species of marsupials, among other things. When his parents bought him a comprehensive encyclopedia of animals, it took him less than three weeks to memorize it completely. “I would have studied animals and published a book about them, but I’m going to draw all of them,” says the young boy, whose ambition is to become a zoologist in the future.
Krtolica has been drawing since he was just two years old. Looking at his complex and advanced creations, it’s not surprising to learn that he’s already held three national solo exhibitions—the first two before the age of eight. As someone who’s still learning and developing, we can imagine that his artwork will only continue to soar to new heights in the future.
This guy is going places! I can’t wait to see how his talent continues to manifest.
Michael Cheval’s surrealist paintings delve into absurd, inverted realities.
Stranger than dreamscapes, his worlds are full of life and sweeping motion, serene and languid faces.
Here he find the waking earthly laws of physics suspended. Metaphor…illusion…allusion…it all tempts the viewer to craft a story.
I’ve decided I’ve really enjoyed including artist statements in posts. I am by no means a trained art critic…just a voracious observer…and at times the artist’s own words really enhance the experience of viewing the work. I’m going to try to include more direct quotes.
Now let’s have a look at Lauren Marx’s creations.
In her own words:
Cosmology, biology and anatomy have always been intriguing to me. My attraction to these topics have compelled me to find a way to create images that combine elements from these dissimilar fields to shape a universe that reflects my unique understanding of the cosmos.
I have developed a symbolic cosmology where animals represent nebulae, birds are the stars formed within the nebulae, and insects are the elements (or ”dust”) created from exploding stars. My hope is that this symbolic representation allows the viewer to see these phenomena as a complete picture of an interacting Universe. Using these animals and insects, I am going to make my own ”creation” myth of the Cosmos to parody current and past creation myths which are strongly reliant upon animals, to show how humans attempt to understand the epic intricacy of the Universe.
William Zdan paints evocative pieces that blur the lines between beautiful and ugly, peace and horror.
It’s amazing what the color red alone can do in that respect, no? Adding red to anything makes it slightly ominous, particularly with the shining gleam of tears (or are they?) and lipgloss.
His frames suit the subject matter well. Dark, industrial, in a strange middle ground between industrial and refined.
Suspense, in a few square inches…
Worse Things Happen at Sea is a collectible booklet by London based artist Kellie Strom (what a great title!).
If it were not double sided, I would think this suitable for framing in a very long frame.
From the source: “Worse Things Happen at Sea” is a double-sided panorama chronicling mythical maritime adventures. From a more modern tale of a massive squid pulling a plane out of the air with its monstrous tentacles to the classic image of vikings beleaguered by strong storms and ferocious dragons, Strøm uses his serious illustration chops to recreate the mythical world his imagination seems to innately conceive.
Charles Wish gives the observer much to explore and ponder in his work. Each time I look at these paintings, I notice new elements I hadn’t seen before. The eyes tend to dart around, trying to take it all in.
From the artist site: Charles Wish is a Los Angeles artist best known for visually fusing American Regionalist imagery with that of 16th – 19th century South-Asia. Citing various artists of the far-east along with American painters, including Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, Wish thoughtfully combines the esoteric symbolism of an age-old civilization with some of rural-America’s most selfsame symbols and scenes.
“The things that fascinate me most in this world usually seem to be directly connected with either the felicity of nature or the culture-ghosts from some distinctly separate pasts. Formulating art which respectfully melds and unifies the best of these experiences always makes me feel inexpressively alive and inexpressively privileged.”
Perhaps I’m lured into Hannah Faith Yata’s work by my Piscean tendencies. Many of her paintings depict odd subjects; half fish, half human or animal, interspersed with the natural world an industrial elements.
I love the way she takes creatures apart in beautiful slices and spirals, and they simply merge with the either, sans blood and guts.
Artist statement:
I make art inspired by everyday life: ideas on things that I see, I read, and documentaries that I obsess over. When I first moved to New York it really hit me how much garbage we generate. I grew up in the country sides of the southern United States where I was always surrounded by nature. Therefore, when I moved to the city I was mind blown by how much trash is generated and how many things are consumed. This motivates me to dig into large amounts of research on things that we do to ourselves and to our environment or order to sustain our standard of living. The pictures that began to form in my mind were ones of domination over nature, the struggle of animals in a changing world, and the effects of a changing world on the animals and humans. Women became the metaphor for mother nature as wild and sexual thing exploited and explored in my work, and animals became the subjects of examining abnormalities and evolution. Taking ideas that I had learned from ideas on feminism, I began to draw parallels in our ways of controlling and objectifying women to how we also think about the earth and it’s resources therein.
One of my all times favorites, Natalie Shau, has a show up at Last Rites Gallery (up until July 5th…I wish I could see this in person).
(The above may be one of my all time favorite Shau images)
See the whole show here.
Previous posts on Natalie Shau here and here.
While Iori Tomita creates beautiful translucent specimens of sea creatures, Brandon Ballengee has chosen to focus on deformed amphibians.
From the artist statement:
Since 1996, my transdisciplinary practice has bridged primary scientific studies with ecological art and engaged environmental stewardship. Underlying my practice is a systemic methodology, which posits art practice as a means of realizing research science, and vice-versa. Inherent to this working method is an impetus for “ecosystem activism” implemented through participatory biology field investigations and laboratory programs that stress public involvement – my attempt at social sculpting. My artworks come from direct experiences with amphibians, birds, fish and insect species found in today’s preternatural ecosystems and those observed in post-natural laboratory settings.
There is evidence that the growing occurrence of amphibian birth defects comes from contaminates in the chemical runoff of man made facilities. I deeply respect Ballengee for using art to evoke awareness and empathy for these creatures.
Now, via an enzymatic process and re-coloring, we can see the beauty of these creatures that tend to be largely ignored by humans.
I’m actually heading to the ER this morning, so I’ll keep this post short. Enjoy the wonderful surreal creations of Lee Harvey Roswell.
In keeping with my resolve to post more of the artist’s own words (when available), I give you Sarah Petruziello’s statement about the work in this gorgeous pencil portfolio.
I create large-scale self-portrait drawings using pencil on paper. These drawings are meticulously-rendered, elaborately staged and illustrative works that use dramatic and expressive poses as well as visceral symbolism as a conduit for both personal and universal narratives.
I walk the line between the reality and the artifice of the self-portrait. I do not view self-portraits as mere illustrated recreations of the self; I frequently use my self image as though I were an actor under the affectation of a role. Sometimes I am a stand-in (for the collective of civilization and a participant in the transgressions of humanity), sometimes I am simply playing myself and these works are detachedly recording minute personal stories as though from a journal.
Truthfully, I create my self-portrait drawings out of a compulsion to document and compartmentalize both fleeting thoughts and emerging prescience. Although some of my drawings can be construed as social commentaries, I do not view art as a catalyst for the transformation of society or as having the ability in itself to make social change. Rather I see art as a reflection of society which we can use as a means to identify and delineate our own beliefs and views, our own stories, and personal histories. By using the traditional medium of pencils on paper, I purposefully disengage from technology to find a more fundamental and corporeal means to explore private subjects and thoughts; by the use of the self-portrait, I am seeking a candid and sometimes awkward intimacy with my drawings.
